1-1 By: Gallego (Senate Sponsor - Shapleigh) H.B. No. 747 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 1999; 1-3 May 10, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Health 1-4 Services; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote: 1-5 Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to certain evaluations made by the governing body of a 1-9 hospital district, hospital authority, or public hospital. 1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-11 SECTION 1. Section 1.03(a)(6), Medical Practice Act (Article 1-12 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as 1-13 follows: 1-14 (6) "Medical peer review committee" or "professional 1-15 review body" means a committee of a health-care entity, the 1-16 governing board of a health-care entity, or the medical staff of a 1-17 health-care entity, provided the committee or medical staff 1-18 operates pursuant to written bylaws that have been approved by the 1-19 policy-making body or the governing board of the health-care entity 1-20 and authorized to evaluate the quality of medical and health-care 1-21 services or the competence of physicians, including those functions 1-22 specified by Section 85.204, Health and Safety Code, and its 1-23 subsequent amendments. Such a committee includes the employees and 1-24 agents of the committee, including assistants, investigators, 1-25 intervenors, attorneys, and any other persons or organizations that 1-26 serve the committee in any capacity. The term "medical peer review 1-27 committee" or "professional review body" includes the governing 1-28 body of a public hospital owned or operated by a governmental 1-29 entity, the governing body of a hospital authority created under 1-30 Chapter 262 or 264, Health and Safety Code, and the governing body 1-31 of a hospital district created under Article IX, Texas 1-32 Constitution, but only: 1-33 (A) in relation to the governing body's 1-34 evaluation of the competence of a physician or the quality of 1-35 medical and health care services provided by the public hospital, 1-36 hospital authority, or hospital district; and 1-37 (B) to the extent that the evaluation under 1-38 Paragraph (A) involves discussions or records that specifically or 1-39 necessarily identify an individual patient or physician. 1-40 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the 1-41 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-42 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-43 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-44 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 1-45 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 1-46 passage, and it is so enacted. 1-47 * * * * *